By
Fatima Anafu-Astanga, GNA
Sandema (UE/R), Jan.
8, GNA – Mr Vanguard Bortie, the District Environment and Sanitation Officer of
Builsa North in the Upper East Region, has urged district assemblies to play
complementary roles in enforcing sanitation by-laws to keep the communities
clean.
He said though some
district assemblies were doing well in formulating by-laws on sanitation, the
work of the environment and sanitation staff would be easier when it was
complemented by the security and sanitation courts, to ensure enforcement.
“When these
complementary roles are absent, it becomes risky for one stakeholder to operate
and arrest defaulters of sanitation,” he said.
Speaking in an
interview with the Ghana News Agency at Sandema, Mr Bortier said the importance
of education and advocacy were critical to behavioural change promotion in
communities and advised stakeholders not to relent on their efforts in
educating the public.
He said access to
household toilets, water and sanitation had to be attached to behavioural
change promotion in order to ensure effective Water, Sanitation and Hygiene
(WASH) services in communities.
“If you provide
potable water to communities and fail to sensitise the people well on other
aspects of sanitation, including transportation of the water to homes and its
eventual usage, it could also be a danger,” he said.
He said the
transmission of disease causing agents through faecal matter was one cause of
tropical diseases and called on the assemblies to collaborate with partners in
water delivery to help make sanitation coverage holistic.
On access to
household toilets, he said the challenges some tenants faced with their
landlords in the provision of toilets were enormous and advised those in such
situations to amicably solve the issue to improve on situation.
GNA
